British version of an American "Pot Luck lunch"

[Thudercatsrule]

Evening wise mumsnetters,

I'm trying to organise a Christmas lunch in work where everyone brings a dish or snacks etc, but i dont know how to phrase it! They call it Pot Luck is the US.

I'm going to book a meeting room, some decorations and then just want everyone to chat and mingle and hopefully get secret santa going as well.

I need to do a poster/email invite.....but am totally stuck on what to say.

So......any ideas please?

Fuddle here too up north!

Jacob's Join here (Northern). Although I have heard Pot Luck too. Never heard of Fuddle.

That’s why Lancashire and Yorkshire rock.

Fuddle is a Notts and Derbyshire thing.

I think fuddle is very Midlands! I'm from further south and it's a word I had to learn pretty quickly when I moved up here. Always in a work context though. At home I'd just say, we're having a buffet, please bring something to share!

@BerriesNutsConkers yeah me too. Fuddle? Never heard of it, perhaps it's regional?

@BlackLambAndGreyFalcon does Google say who Jacob was? Why did he need to join?

Bring-a-dish

We used to have bring and share buffets over Christmas. Used being the operative word.
what actually happened is that various people would bring in loads of nice stuff fir the buffet; the same people every time would bring in nothing or something like a really cheapo Tesco sharing bag of fake skips. Those people would be first at said buffet shovelling the nice food in. Those of us that bought in nice stuff got fed up with it abd we stopped doing it at all.
So unless you are sure it won't lead to a similar situation I wouldn't bother !

We sat "fuddle"

I agree with PPs its best to allocate or agree what each person will being

even better is everyone put in a couple of ££ and order pizza

I'd call it a pot luck. Even if it's not the term the people you're emailing would use, it's likely to be understood by more people.

And have a spreadsheet set up where people can sign up for mains/sides/desserts, and write down what they are planning to bring. Means you won't have 6 tubs of coleslaw, a back of crisps, a cheesecake and a trifle for lunch.

I wouldn’t have a clue what Pot Luck meant, never heard it used in this context previously.

That doesn’t sound like a problem to me!

It's a fuddle

Although I've never heard anyone call it this outside of Yorkshire (I'm sure I will be corrected soon!)

Bring & share

Fuddle = food plus muddle 😄

We do this at work
We call it a buffet and have a spreadsheet where everyone can list what they are brining it has worked well for years

Yeah this is why it's much better to decide beforehand what each person will bring. Much better that way than the scenario you described or two thirds of the buffet being Pringles and kettle chips and nothing else except maybe one sad little quiche and may be a trifle or elderly Swiss roll or packet of custard creams dated 2019.

Fuddle.

Although given the diverse range of suggestions and reactions, you'd probably be best describing it.

Bring and share, but you'll need to manage it or you end up with just crisps and biscuits.

Make a list of stuff and get people to commit to what they will bring.

At my old work we did bring a dish. It was hugely popular and we never bothered allocating or anything. If you do it's easy to stick round a poll on survey monkey or teams or something.

I miss my old work so much!

Anther vote for Fuddle!

Jacobs Join here in Cumbria. Never heard of a fuddle. Must be an east of Pennines thing. I'd raise an eyebrow if a colleague asked me to join their fuddle 😬

In Australia you would say “bring a plate”.

I have been to events like this in the UK, but it wasn’t really called anything.

As others have said, you do need to make sure people know what to bring. I once suggested people bring a salad to a barbecue, and ended up with bowls and bowls of lettuce. (I thought someone would bring tabbouleh, someone would bring coleslaw, someone might bring a chopped Greek salad, a potato salad, a mixed bean salad, etc)

I expect I have a dirty mind but Fuddle sounds almost rude!

Where I am in Yorkshire it’s a faith supper. A fuddle is when it’s organised who is bringing what.